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[ElmarBoehl]

great, I´ll have a try in the next few days!!!

greets Elmar

[WindWpn]

"DCG for DBW" is by far the best effort for DBW!!  I am a regular online flyer and enjoy full switch objective-based servers such as WoP.  When I have to fly offline, the DCG experience is simply the closest I can find to the immersion of simply being there.  The randomness and large assortment of flights makes for a fun flight/fight experience.    I have been flying Lonestar's excellent pacific theater DCG campaigns and the wealth of experience is quite rewarding given the numerous flights in the air, effects of aerial and ground action, and affects of the campaign timeline as it rolls along.

I am currently flying in the Philippines full campaign and it is really great to cycle though each mission day by day as balance shifts and the overall strategy unfolds.  Rewarding recent moment..., I was pushing out on a sweep but lost flight lead soon after carrier takeoff (knew I could have found him with autopilot, but remained in control to look for another group to form up with).  Picked up with an SBD formation heading out at same vector as our sweep and a second wave was behind us with Hellcat escorts.  Lead formation, which I was with, spotted enemy fighters inbound.  As single high above the SBDs, I got picked up by incoming co-alt bandits.  Dove out and called for help via Ground Control while vectoring for the rear wave where I know the hellcats were perched.  Sure enough, they vectored and picked up my trailing bandits.  Heard the shoot down calls on the radio, and began a slight left climb to see two smoking bandits going down courtesy of the hellcats!  The experience reminded me of flying online with comms where I call for help and real guys can usually be there to shake enemy off the tail.  Very cool experience found in DCG!   


Definitely looking forward to Clash of Eagles when it rolls out!

Happy offliner with DCG when I cannot be online!   

[Slink]

Thanks windweapon, greatly appreciated. Good to hear you're getting so much out of both DCG and DBW (and my paltry contribution). I just very amateurishly did the files to extend the plane set for DBW, all credit goes to Paul Lowengrin who created the original concept of dynamic campaigns, wrote the program, and has been supporting it for ten years now, but it's still nice to be appreciated 

[CWMV]

Is there a simple version of the instructions somewhere?

I followed to the letter and every time I try to start a Mediterranean 41 Luftwaffe campaign in the replacement mode the start button just sticks, then when I try to start it out of the campaign selector it freezes the game.

Also, are the maps updated? Seemed the BoB scenarios were still using Finland maps!

[Slink]

Which instructions are you using? Paul's own on the website? Maybe it's time I put a set in the first post, but this is Paul's program not mine.

However, installation and basic use should be simple, famous last words...
Just tried Med41 Luftwaffe without problems, so I assume something must be wrong in the set up, or is it just this one campaign and nation?
Do other stock DCG campaigns work? Does Med41 work with a different nation?

Run the set up wizard just to check the install and game paths are OK. You can also copy the files from the DCG install DGen folder to the Game's DGen folder (normally automatic when you install) just in case one or more have been screwed up somehow, as bad DGen files will cause lock ups.

Try deleting the event log in the main game folder, crashes can screw this up too, it will be replaced when you restart the game.
Seems odd, but check whether it's a specific problem to this campaign or none of them work, and then let me know.

Maps; yes, DCG is ten years old now and still uses stock maps and planes only, so Britain is Finland and the Med41 campaign uses the online 7 islands (!?).
Third party campaigns often use modded maps, (and it's a vast amount of work to put them into DCG...) and these campaigns are generally more complex and detailed, but they all need updating to DBW standards, many UP2 based campaigns exist but do need some work. Updating the stock DCG campaigns would also be a major undertaking, and updating both (stock and 3rd party) only really makes sense when there is some degree of stability (DBW1.7 and 4.11 around the corner).
I did just update one of Lonestar's Pacific campaigns on the Slot/Solomons map, it's in the missions section under "my remaining campaigns".

[Slink]

originally from the Missions topic...

These are Lonestar's Pacific campaigns with the DGEN and mission files updated to remove the HSFX scout SBDs etc; and changed all the map entries, all packaged up into jsgme add-ons for simple installation and removal, otherwise still Lonestar's campaigns, nothing changed.

You should have the B26 and Judy installed too, so windweapons' packs are a brilliant idea!
Tried this briefly with several campaigns on several sides in clean DBW1.6, all seems to work fine. (Apart from the default Zero skins of course)

Set up the DCG options as in Lonestar's read me files.

Install into jsgme mods and install to DBW as usual, the DGEN files will be copied over and the campaign itself will be put into the Missions directory.
Open DCG, go to Files, select 3rd party campaign, navigate to IL2\Missions\DCG Pacific xxx campaign, and select the allcampaigns.dcg file.
It should now be installed in DCG, DCG should show a message in big green letters "Optional Third Party Campaign Folder"

Do NOT click on the globe to select a campaign, just close DCG and open IL2,
(open and close QMB quickly first to set your standard options, they will be carried over to the campaign window)
go to Campaigns and choose your side (USAAF, USMC, USN, RNZAF, RAAF, IJN, IJA).
Each has different campaigns and squadrons available according to date of involvement and circumstance (e.g. Santa Cruz was a carrier battle so will probably only appear for naval sides and not others).

You should see the available campaign names in the box (may have to scroll through the other DGEN campaigns).
Select one, set rank, difficulty options, and press start.

The set of campaigns for your chosen side should appear in the new window along with available plane options.
Choose your campaign (why not start from the beginning), plane, and squad.
Press Generate.

Wait a mo, and the first mission should come up, press Fly.

Once the first mission has been flown and ended you can check the debrief and press Apply (unless you're dead) to generate the next mission.
Campaigns should carry over, i.e. when the first ends the second starts automatically, and so on.

You can also open DCG now and adjust campaign settings, squads etc. if you want to.

Note that the DBW compatibility files are already included, however, also note that when you use a 3rd party campaign and open DCG, it still points to the class and payload files in the DCG install directory, wherever you put it, so to update DCG to the correct path for the campaign, i.e. the files in the campaign directory, open DCG after generating the campaign in IL2, open the Aircraft Class Settings panel and check the the path;
"Changes will impact all campaigns using the class and payload data files located in: xxxx"

If it points to your DCG install directory and not the campaign folder (which should now be "DCG Pacific xxx campaign" in the Missions directory), then just open the last DCG panel and then go back to the Aircraft Settings panel, the path should now read correctly as "IL2Install"\Missions\DCG Pacific xxx campaign.

This seems to be a little glitch in DCG, so check the path is correct whenever you open DCG. Shouldn't make any difference if you have the compatibility files installed in DCG anyway as the data is the same, but if you edit anything you want to be certain you're editing the right files in the right directory, can get confusing otherwise.
If you don't have the files installed you'll get the stock DCG data without mod planes, and maybe exploding spawns again... so update the path...

Just a quick update really, nothing else is changed, download is about 500K, and as jsgme they're cleanly installed and removed again, which you should do before installing another campaign or going back to stock to prevent any DGEN files being overwritten somewhere along the line.

So as it's Christmas here's the whole set in one package all adapted as jsgme for DBW1.6, see above for instructions.
Credit and thanks go to Lonestar for the brilliant original campaigns!
Slink Services Inc. denies all liability for stupid mistakes, unforgivable oversights or just plain idiocy. (so very true...)

http://www.datafilehost.com/download-b3a78049.html

[SLAWEK1971WAWA]

Realy fine present for the pacific campaigns fans! 

I'm dreaming about DCG campains in Europe in the time after BoB. The rodeo-, circus-, rhubarb- etc. -missions. Yeah... 

[CWMV]

Thanks for the in depth response. I'm sure my problems lie between chair and keyboard 
Now when using a campaign like boelckes dgen campaigns is there any benefit to having dcg replace dgen?

[Slink]

Morning CWMV, ... coffee...

remember that everything seems easy when you know how, but getting there may take a bit of practice, so stick with it and once you're familiar with the workings of the program it all becomes fairly straightforward, though I seem to insist on still screwing up myself occasionally...

DGen campaigns are for DGen only, the two programs don't work the same way and aren't compatible. If you select a DGen campaign with DCG what happens is that DCG selects an equivalent DCG campaign instead, so you play that instead of the DGen campaign, so you can't actually run DGen campaigns like Boelcke's at all, you need to use DGen itself, which is being updated currently.

For a more advanced campaign experience than the old stock one's try the Lonestar campaigns I posted above, I know it's Pacific and not Europe, but they are fixed to work in DBW so should be a fairly painless experience... think I need to collect all the old campaigns and update the lot (oh shit...) which only really makes sense for 1.7 though and would take a while...

There are post BoB cross channel campaigns in basic DCG, on the old maps and stock planes, but could be edited. Otherwise they will come in a bigger format when I get the CoE campaign up and running, along with a bigger map... but that's all for 1.7 too, and BoB first of course, aber er kommt, er kommt!

[WindWpn]

There are post BoB cross channel campaigns in basic DCG, on the old maps and stock planes, but could be edited. Otherwise they will come in a bigger format when I get the CoE campaign up and running, along with a bigger map... but that's all for 1.7 too, and BoB first of course, aber er kommt, er kommt!

Hey Slink,

Lonestar also has this BoB DCG campaign which if similar in scope to his PTO campaigns, should be quite good.  However, I have not been able to get this one to work in DBW 1.6.  Perhaps your updates/knowledge of changes required, you may be able to fix this one to work in DBW?  Could be an "appetizer" in prep for your upcoming CoE release.

cya!

Wind

[tanda01]

I think there is enough interest in Lonestar's (and others) third party DCG campaigns to create its own sticky with compatable campaigns for DBW and a brief description of each.

I have DBW 1.6 and am excited about it . . . but I'm still flying 4.09m + UP2.1 because I didn't know the campaigns had been made compatable. I had to search quite deep to find this out.

DCG third party campaigns are amazing (especially with all the new maps available) but the info about them is scattered far and wide.

[Slink]

OK windweapon, working on it, but this is a tricky one... got it running but still needs a bit of polish, coming soon.

tanda01, maybe I could extend the first post so the campaigns are directly available along with the compat files, and add them on for you as I do them... would be a long post with all the descriptions, but I don't have the power of sticky.
It won't all come at once, looohhhts of work in there.